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If All We Can Do Is Predict Apple's Demise, We Suck as a Society

Written by: Rocco Pendola01/03/13 - 2:45 PM EST

Tickers in this article:
AAPL

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- The title of this article condenses a Tweet I posted earlier today. You can, by the way, follow me on Twitter. Outside of TheStreet, that's where so much of the action happens.

Anyway, I'm not in the mood to fool around. This is serious. Somebody has to say it. And, today, that somebody, that voice of reason is me.

With Apple (AAPL) right now, we're witnessing some of the worst behavior our society has to offer. And, slow down , I have perspective. I'm not speaking within the context of the really bad stuff -- school shootings, gang rapes and such. I'm talking about the way we handle ourselves in basic, everyday relations with one another and how we interact with popular culture fads, trends, icons and institutions.

You know -- Hillary Clinton ends up in the hospital with a blood clot between her brain and skull and you have pathetic excuses for human beings Tweeting that she's trying to duck testimony on Benghazi. If you don't care about her, fine, but remember, she has a daughter who might read that tripe.

We have this societal tendency to look for people who do not share our views of the world or political sentiments. We proceed to oppose them every step of the way, even when our attacks move into vile and unacceptable territory.

This propensity, to cut down real or imagined "opposition," influences to varying extents practically all aspects of our lives. From the big, unthinkable things like rapes and shootings to the smaller, relatively insignificant stuff I'm lucky enough to write about -- companies and stocks -- and most everything in between.

Maybe my opinion is jaundiced by the fact that I have a public job and am exposed to an unhealthy level of vitriol, but is the world really a better place now that every ego has a storefront Facebook and every negative part of you can have a screen name via Internet forums ? Weren't we more civil when our critiques of each other involved eye contact? Maybe my rationality can't escape the gravity of my experience on this one.

Look at the Dallas Morning News comments section. Still amazes me what snarling dogs we are under our thin veneers. Sure, you can simply tune them out. But snark (and meanness) is mental porn. It's fun to make it, and damn hard to look away once you glance at it.

Social Media rests firmly on the twin pillars of narcissism and voyeurism. We conduct our own show and follow the shows of others. That can be initially satisfying, because everyone has some small desire of being famous, admired, listened to, or important. The problem with the current ease of having your own reality show is that everyone else has their own show too, and Other People are just damn annoying.